Bedbugs Strike at Swanky Waldorf-Astoria in NYC

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City is a stopping place for royalty, heads of state, celebrities – and now, bedbugs.

A Florida woman told The New York Post she was bitten by the pesky insects at the hotel in an attack so painful, she was upgraded from a $330-per-night room to luxury digs in its tower section that normally cost more than $700.

Not even the city's finest lodgings are immune from New York's bedbug infestation, which has struck stores like Bloomingdale's, Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch, and the offices of Elle magazine.

The woman says the bites she suffered the night of Sept. 25 left her with welts and rashes that forced her on anti-inflammatory prednisone pills for a week.

"We were grossed out," said the investment-bank employee from Coral Gables who was in town for the weekend with her mother, sister and boyfriend.

But the hotel insists that even though she got the upgrade, it investigated the matter and couldn't find any bugs in her room.

"No bedbugs or trace of bedbugs was found in the room in contention," said Robert Allegrini, a spokesman for Hilton Worldwide, which runs the Waldorf.